FA M I LY
We Need to Talk About… Parental Burnout By Dr Stanley Arumugam
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arenting during recent years has been especially difficult, with many parents reporting symptoms of burnout but feeling too guilty to talk about it. McKinsey reports that the stress of working from home added to the seemingly unrelenting responsibilities of caring for children and families has been overwhelming for many working parents, some of whom describe feeling as if they are ‘losing it’ or ‘going crazy’ under all the pressure. A more recently studied phenomenon, parental burnout is a specific syndrome resulting from enduring exposure to chronic parenting stress, and characterised by emotional, physical and mental exhaustion; lowered feelings of fulfilment, and detachment from loved ones, especially children.
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